Avaliação da destala mecanizada no processamento de fumo.

Abstract

Mechanical Hand Strips process is a new way to separate the lamina from the stem and substitute the conventional Hand Strip method. A comparison between these two processes has been made using three different tobacco grades: XDC, MOCA and BOCA, which represents filler, flavour and full flavour styles; with the objective of evaluating the efficiency of lamina yield, productivity and ergonomic aspects. In order maximize the lamina yield in the new system, the rotation speed of the cylinder was adjusted for every grade evaluated, according to the tobacco leaf characteristics, texture of the leaf and stalk position. The results of this comparison has given us an indication that the mechanical hand strips process has some advantages against the conventional hand strips method in all topics and grades tested. A significant improve in yield of lamina, productivity and ergonomic aspects was verified with the mechanical hand strips process. With this new system, employees can work seated and the number and types of movements made by each of them have had an enormous reduction, what will probably help to diminish the number work injuries.